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Arne Slot declared he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight games at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should look at my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as the coach made multiple attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in all other game we have been the dominant side and were capable to create opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”